Dodds denies internal DUP split

Nigel Dodds said the party was united in its policy

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds has denied the DUP is following the Ulster Unionist example by embarking on a period of crippling internal division.

Mr Dodds was one of 12 DUP MLAs who said Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness should not get status as prospective first and deputy first ministers.

Mr Dodds argued comparisons with the Ulster Unionists were "inaccurate".

He said the DUP would ensure leadership and grassroots were united around a single policy towards power-sharing.

"David Trimble didn't do that, he presented his party with a fait accompli and rammed it through, whatever the dissent," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme.

"Any sensible party leader knows, and the DUP is very sensible, and pragmatic and principled, all of those things, and it knows that you cannot carry a country and you cannot carry a party which is divided.

"We will ensure that things are properly delivered by Sinn Fein and the government first."

On Friday, the DUP leader, Ian Paisley, said public divisions amongst unionists could only provide succour to his party's enemies.

Murmurs of Paisley 'betrayal'

In a speech to DUP supporters in County Antrim, Mr Paisley urged unionists not to be misguided or detoured.

On Thursday night in Portadown, UK Unionist leader Bob McCartney accused the DUP of betraying and blackmailing the unionist people over the St Andrews Agreement.

But Mr Paisley insisted he was not about to betray the trust placed in him over the past four decades.

Mr Paisley pledged that nothing would happen in terms of a new government unless republicans deliver satisfactorily on real support for the police, giving up the gun and ending all criminal and paramilitary activity.

The deadline for devolution is 26 March, with fresh assembly elections set for 7 March.